Powers That Be
The Powers That Be were an ancient and godlike species that oversaw the evolution of early life but rarely interfered - preferring to allow mortal life to grow by itself, however due to the formation of Misery the reign of these beings came to a dramatic end.. History Before The Beginning Long before the age of man the universe was still young, the planets had just began to spawn the first primitive civilizations - they gazed upon the infinite wonder of creation with equal parts curiosity and fear, they looked to the great Powers That Be to guide them and teach them yet these mysterious beings never interfered, preferring instead to watch as the fledgling races began to grow. For generations this cosmic balance was waged - the young species learnt to abandon the "star gods" and sought their own destinies, building cities and learning to evolve without aid, the Powers That Be watched in silence at this and knew it was good: their masterpiece was almost complete.. yet neither the gods nor the young races could be prepared for the darkness that would soon befall them both.. The disaster struck without warning or reason and shattered the balance almost at once - a troop of Eodians, normally peaceful swamp-dwellers, rose out of their village and attacked a neighboring Plinyax settlement - the raiders burned homes and scattered families, beat their enemies within an inch of their lives and stole valuable food and resources before returning to the swamps: the first act of war had been committed and the Powers That Be at once became uneasy - this was not part of their plan.. In the following days things worsened as the Plinyax grew fearful and paranoid, building ever more elaborate defenses and in desperation began to return to the worship of the "star gods" to protect them, meanwhile the Eodians became ever more bold and savage - attacking their neighbors with ever increasing malice until in a moment of madness the Eodians committed the first act of mass murder, driving the Plinyax to near-extinction. Unable to stand and watch any longer the Powers That Be descended upon the mortal plane and did what they felt had to be done to stop the chaos that was threatening their masterpiece, they combined their formidable psychic powers and forcibly ejected the negative emotions of the Eodians and every other race effected by the terrible war and tossed them into the depths of time in the hopes they would never again resurface in the minds of mortals. The Powers That Be then exiled the Eodians to the furthest regions of space as punishment for their crimes and forbade the other species from ever mentioning their existence again - the great "star gods" then bestowed upon the young races the power of speech and language so they could communicate with words and not violence, then the old ones vanished back to the stars, content that they had averted the destruction of their masterpiece. However even the gods made mistakes and in their haste to preserve their masterpiece the Powers That Be had forgotten that once darkness had been brought into creation it could not be so easily removed - the evil thoughts and emotions that had been sent flying across time began to merge and warp under unseen forces, linking together like a spider's web and wrapping around themselves until after an age of spiraling through time the psychic mass had taken a form and personality: Misery had finally been born and the universe would never be the same again.. The Coming Of Misery By the time Misery had entered the universe again the young races had once again grown, managing to recover from their dark past they began to form the first true civilizations and Misery saw this progress - still largely formless and without gender Misery hurled itself towards an inhabited world named Hyboria and at once the skies darkened as a bolt of darkness crashed into the ground, shattering the surface and sending thick clouds of smoke into the sky as the shadowy mass warped and shifted in place until at long last Misery emerged from the ground in the form of a humanoid female dressed in primitive armor, her face concealed under a metallic mask: this formidable form would become known as the Dark Spirit - one of Misery's many guises. Misery was accepted by the Hyborians and grew fearful of their faith in the "Star Gods" - remembering them as the beings that had stopped her advance into the universe long ago.. The Fall Of The Gods Misery began to remember her past more vividly - the endless spiraling of space and time as she was sent tumbling across the boundaries of infinity by unseen hands, she remembered the feeling of being ripped out of the infant minds of the young races - alone and confused.. she had been banished before she had even been born - condemned by beings that had decreed her a monster, now at long last she had the strength to confront her ancient adversaries, at last vengeance was within her grasp. Misery took to the stars once more, her form dispersing into a ball of darkness as she sped across the depths of space like a spectre - homing in on her target, even as she flew through space the Powers That Be did awaken from their slumber and looked once more upon creation: It was then that the Powers That Be engaged in a titanic battle with Misery, causing the fabric of space and time warped into innumerable shapes and patterns as the battle of the gods began to take its toll on the surrounding universe itself. Eventually the Powers That Be succeeded in overpowering Misery and felt victory was within their grasp, only for tragedy to strike as their ancient adversary destroyed her physical form - causing the seed of suffering to spread across the universe like a sea of ash, falling on innumerable worlds and burying themselves into the minds of mortal life: Misery had sacrificed her physical form to gain the power of an Abstract. The Powers That Be could do little as they watched this, the masterpiece had been ruined - their work destroyed.. the great "Star Gods" looked upon their failed creation one last time before with great regret and sadness the exhausted and wounded gods left the plane of mortals for good, ending the reign of gods until the arrival of the Primal Gods a mere three hundred years later.. Category:Species